Wilt

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by jekylljuice

Well, given that Wilt and Foul Larry have the same basic interest (ie: basketball), I could see them being great pals under better circumstances. That Larry came around at the end of GWH was obviously intended to show that he had some good in him, and the actions which led to Wilt's being mutilated were, as you said, an accident. It's just that Larry was always willing to play so rough and had scant regard for the rules of the game, and even though he was moved by Wilt's reunion with Jordan, he never actually seemed to show any direct remorse for the way his actions had affected Wilt in the past (that's not to say that it didn't happen offscreen, but still), so I could still see where at least a little tension might come in. But then, as FailedShapeshifter says, Wilt's very forgiving, or at least manages to suppress a lot of his resentment. I personally think that Larry needs to work on his conduct on the basketball court if he's ever going to be a respectable opponent.

Mmm?what I was getting at had less to do with Wilt?s status as a non-human but more the fact that which ever direction his character development ultimately depends upon the will of the writers, and there?s always the chance that it might not necessarily reflect exactly how a real person in his situation would behave. But don?t mind that statement ? naturally, I?m just hedging my bets, since the writers have done a marvellous job thus far at portraying his anxiety disorders in a realistic and believable manner. It?s one of the chief things that I?ve always appreciated about Foster?s, and one of the foremost reasons why I wouldn?t want his personality to undergo too significant a transformation. There are far too many ?adult? programmes out there which, whenever they want to establish a character as neurotic, will usually portray them as being very flamboyant and in-your-face about their anxieties and compulsions. Falling into that category myself I find this pretty irritating, particularly whenever specific disorders are assigned to them which their behaviours in no striking way match. Such portrayals only distort the public?s perceptions of such conditions, leading to a barrage of clinomorphisms and misconceptions. I can?t tell you how much that gets my hackles up. A lot of people miss the point of what it is to really be neurotic. It isn?t something cute, amusing and charmingly eccentric, and the majority people who have it wouldn?t dare to exhibit or even mention most of their problems in front of others because, in contrast to most psychotic disorders, you know damn well how irrational your thoughts and actions are, and that knowledge in itself is just an added layer of your anguish.

I don?t have much patience for the whole ?cartoons are for kids only? standpoint, but nonetheless, Wilt was a character I was initially very surprised to find in a ?kids? show on Cartoon Network. It took me a few episodes to completely cotton onto his anxious disposition, but when I did I thought it was magnificently done - most older viewers could probably pick up on his troubles and insecurities, but there is, for the most part, something pleasingly subtle about them. Other characters don?t really seem to notice, Wilt himself never makes much of an issue of them, and he?s constantly striving to keep his thoughts and feelings on sensitive matters concealed, which is a far more accurate and relatable portrayal of neurosis than you could find in most adult-orientated fare, for the reasons outlined above. His case also has the potential to illustrate to viewers to all ages that, whatever notions they might have about mental health issues, most people affected by them are perfectly ordinary individuals who suffer in silence. The Foster's writers have already shown that they have far more insight and sensitivity than a lot of other film and TV writers, and I'm sure they'll remain true and consistent to that.

Sorry for the long post, but when I really get going about this sort of thing I find it hard to stop.

Your description of how the show's writers handle Wilt's emotional issues is dead-on, and yet-another reason why Foster's is NOT "just a kid's show". Like you said, on most live-action tv shows, whether they're comedies or dramas, anytime that there is a character who suffers from some sort of mental or emotional condition, the writers go out of their way to portray this character and his/her actions as over-the-top, which is actually rather patrongizing. It's like saying to the viewers, "You're not smart enough to pick up on this unless we really shove it in your faces". Thankfully, the writers of Foster's are much more sophisticated and indeed, Wilt is a far more realistic portrayal of someone who has all this pain and anguish bottled up inside them 30 years. Wilt is a very complex character, and he is far from easy to figure out. I'd pointed out before, that just when you think you've got him pinned down, in terms of how he'll react, he changes the whole deck of cards. Many fans of the show just said that he was the way he was, behavior-wise, because that's how his creator imaginaned him, which we now know isn't the case, and had him pegged as someone who was "weak" and "spineless" by nature. After seeing what he's been through(some of it, anyway), and seeing how he can manage to hold all these issues inside him, and how he can "man-up" and not show pain, emotional or physical, all I can say is that Wilt is anything BUT weak!

With regard to Larry, I'd think that if he stays at Foster's very long, he would eventually begin to feel some pretty deep remorse about what happened to Wilt. He KNEW, 30 years ago, that Wilt had been hurt, but at that time, of course, all that mattered to him was beating that tall red guy. I'm surprised he didn't actually make fun of Wilt's missing arm and mess-up eye when confronted by him 30 years later. Wilt is a forgiving sort, and I can see him actually going out of his way to be nice to Larry. Now I'm not trying to shove religion down anyone's throat, but there's a Biblical quote that appears both in the Old Testament and in the Book of Acts, in which the Apostle Paul instructs some of his followers on how to best neutralize an enemy, and it makes sense now, regardless of one's belief system. He tells them to be extra nice to enemies, to feed them and give them nice gifts and praise them at every chance, and by doing so, you will be "heaping piles of burning coals on their heads", in other words, giving them one heckuva guilt trip! I can easily see Wilt doing just this, and Larry becoming more and more regretful about what he did to Wilt, accident or not, eventually breaking down and acknowledging that he did something awful and begging for Wilt's forgiveness, publically.

pitbulllady